The present invention generally relates to medical diagnostic monitoring devices and methods of using the same. In particular, the present invention relates to a medical monitoring device having a reader for reading coded health related information.
Portable medical diagnostic monitors are becoming more and more common as technology improves. A portable diagnostic monitor collects clinical information on or from a patient when he is out of the doctor""s office carrying on with his daily routines. To better diagnose and manage certain medical conditions, it is important to track a patient""s activities and match it to a diagnostic result such as but not limited to, a blood sugar reading from a portable diabetes monitor. Currently a patient either does not record his daily activities or writes his activities down on paper. Writing the information down is time consuming and prone to error. In some cases, certain portable diagnostic device may allow for limited key stroke/character entry.
Since it is important to keep the diagnostic monitor within a convenient size there is limited area on the device to provide input keys. Thus making inputting data cumbersome and time consuming. Additionally, many users of the diagnostic monitors may not be comfortable navigating through a series of menu displays in order to enter information on an electronic device. Other users may have difficulty reading the information on the limited display area or may have arthritic conditions that make it difficult or impossible to manipulate a series of keys on an electronic device. Thus, a need exists to provide a portable diagnostic monitor that allows patients to easily, quickly and reliably enter information about daily health activity.
The proposed invention would allow a patient to easily track and match his daily activities to the clinical information being collected by the diagnostic device. A preferred embodiment of the present invention enables a person to easily track daily activities via barcode input.
The basic components of a preferred embodiment of the present invention are a portable medical diagnostic device and a miniature identification capture reader. The identification capture reader could be a barcode scanner, imager, infrared identification reader or similar technology.
The subcomponents of the medical device may be a battery, display, keyboard, cradle, wireless communications circuitry, memory, housing, central processing unit (CPU) and telephony components. The medical device could be any portable diagnostic monitor that patients would carry around to monitor a specific vital health sign. For instance, the device may include, but not limited to, the following monitors: heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor, cholesterol monitor and diabetes monitor. The portable diagnostic device could be portable digital assistance (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d) or notebook computer that includes a module and/or software for monitoring a user""s health signs. The barcode scanner could be integrated into the medical diagnostic device or attached to the medical diagnostic device via an accessory device. The barcode scanner could be formed as a sled type device that can be removably secured to the medical diagnostic device.
Along with carrying the portable diagnostic device, which may have a barcode scanner attached or integrated inside, a patient would also carry a small index or business sized cards with pre-printed 1D or 2D barcodes that relate to a specific health related activity. The health related activities could be eating certain types of food, eating certain amounts of food, taking medications, exercising, sleeping, experiencing stress related events, etc. In a preferred embodiment, meals could be available that include a barcode that includes specific health information to be registered with the portable diagnostic device of the present invention. For example, a line of frozen dinners could have a two-dimensional barcode that provides information about the food. In addition, to identifying the ingredients, the barcode could contain information about the amount of sugar, fat and cholesterol per serving. Similarly, restaurants could provide the barcodes for the food the customer ordered on menus or other printed sheets of paper.
Before or after one of the health related activities occur, the patient scans with the portable diagnostic device of the present invention a particular barcode associated with the activity. Barcode scanning allows for a quick and error proof way to enter and record the data. By comparing the clinical results from the diagnostic monitor to activities entered by the barcode scanner the patient and the doctor can provide a better and a more complete diagnosis. All the data would be stored in the monitor and/or sent over a wireless or wired connection to a database.
An object of the present invention is to provide a portable diagnostic device having a reader integrated therein which allows a patient to record accurately and easily daily health activity.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable diagnostic device accessory having an integrated scanner which can be removably secured to a portable diagnostic device, the combination allows a patient to record accurately and easily daily health activity.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide printed barcode labels that may be used with a portable diagnostic device for accurately and easily recording daily health activity.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a portable diagnostic device that can be calibrated easily by scanning a calibration barcode.